Rock and a Hard Place Issue Sixteen: Summer 2026
COMING SOON from RHP on July 2, 2026
Print ISBN: 979-8-950960-00-0; EBook ISBN: 979-8-950960-01-7
Pre-order on AMAZON
Never mess with a woman and her python.
Muscle memory in the meat business ... Did we mention the blood?
Excuse us, but this is OUR heist.
Who's a psychopath? Asking for a friend.
That's just for starters in Issue 16 of Rock and a Hard Place Magazine. You can spend months in therapy, or you can just take the plunge.
Rock and a Hard Place is the literary magazine that knows that sixteen ain't always so sweet ....
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
(In order of appearance of work)
MOLLIE ST. JOHN (Bluesky: @molliestjohn.bsky.social) is a television writer whose credits include ABC’s Nashville and Netflix’s Arcane. She currently has several television projects in development, including the adaptation of a worldwide video game. She also teaches writing.
COLIN ALEXANDER (Bluesky: @colincalexander.bsky.social) is an attorney in the Bay Area who has previously published in Radon Journal and The Molotov Cocktail, with work upcoming in Analog. His novella, Suicide Valley Trail Maintenance, comes out in July of 2026 via Stanchion Books.
MICHAEL BETTENDORF (he/him) (Bluesky: @BeardedBetts.bsky.social) is a multi-genre writer from the Midwest. He’s the author of experimental black metal gamebook TRVE CVLT (2024), cyber-noir collection Midwestern Chrome (2026), and literary bizarro novella Help! I Can’t Stop Shitting Snakes (2027). His short fiction has appeared/forthcoming at Cosmic Horror Monthly, Mythaxis, and elsewhere. He works in a high school library in Lincoln, NE—a place he believes is too strange to be a flyover state. Find him on www.michaelbettendorfwrites.com.
RICH EHISEN is editor in chief at Capitol Weekly, a nonprofit news publication that covers the California State Capitol. When not chronicling public policy issues he is the producer and moderator of The Open Mic: Writers in Their Own Words podcast/YouTube show, which features his entertaining discussions on writing with authors like Chris Holm, J.A. Jance, Lincoln Child, Tracy Clark, Peter Abrahams, Lou Berney, Stephen Mack Jones, Wanda Morris and many more. When stuck on plot points, Rich works through it with his two crazy English Setters on long walks through the ag fields near their home.
CHRISTINE BLACKWICKS (FB: @christineblackwicks; christineblackwicks.com) received her master’s in creative writing from Harvard University and is a huge fan of reading, candy, and daydreaming. Depending upon her mood, she’s been known to write anything from horror to nonfiction. This is her third story published by Rock and a Hard Place.
MARY TAUGHER’s short stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, Narrative Magazine, Santa Monica Review, The Notre Dame Review, Coolest American Stories 2022, and elsewhere. An Ohio native, she lives in San Francisco where she is working on a collection of short stories.
AD SCHWEISS has been a prosecutor for fifteen years and handles homicide and gang cases. His short fiction has appeared in RHP on three previous occasions. His work has also appeared in Cold Caller, Shotgun Honey, and elsewhere. He lives in Northern California with his troublesome wife, his troublesome kids, and a well-behaved dog.
PETER ROBBINS is a retired lawyer, onetime journalist and unappreciated polymath who once lived in southern Appalachia but now resides in Panama. His writing has appeared in The Great Smokies Review, Mountain Xpress and other publications.
HENRY McFARLAND (he/him) (FB: @henry.mcfarland.50; Bluesky: @hecon.bsky.social) is a community activist and part-time short story writer. Like the main character of his story, he grew up in Jersey City, N.J. He has published stories in Brain Games: Stories to Astonish, Page & Spine, Tree and Stone, After Dinner Conversation, Cosmorama, the Starship Sofa podcast, Andromeda Spaceways, Every Day Fiction, Bullet Points, The Colored Lens, Breaking Into the Craft, and Lorelei Signal.
LISA ROBERTSON is a Texas-based magazine editor and features writer. Her work has recently appeared in WestWord, Writer’s Playground, Elegant Literature, Next Tribe, and Stone’s Throw, among others. She is a 2025 Best of the Net nominee for her short story “Other Mothers.”
NATHAN PETTIGREW is an editor at Mythic Picnic and the author of Tales from Terrebonne, forthcoming in 2026 from Rock and a Hard Place Press.
CHRISTINA HOAG’s short noir fiction has appeared in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Black Cat Weekly, Shotgun Honey, Guilty Crime Story, All Due Respect, Rock and a Hard Place, Dark Yonder, Saturday Evening Post, as well as Crimeucopia, Black Beacon Mystery, and Vigilante Crime anthologies. She is the author of noir novels Girl on the Brink, named Suspense magazine’s Best of YA, and Skin of Tattoos, a Silver Falchion Award finalist, and The Blood Room, an Audible bestseller.(In order of appearance of work)